North British Locomotive Company

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The North British Locomotive Company of Scotland (NBL or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow companies, Sharp Stewart, Neilson and Company and Dübs and Company, creating the largest locomotive building company in Europe. Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn. The new central Administration Block and Drawing Offices for the combined company were completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works in 1909 and is today the main campus of North Glasgow College. In 1918 the factory produced the first prototype of the Anglo-American Mark VIII battlefield tank for the Allied armies, but with the Armistice it did not go into production. The two other Railway works in Springburn were St. Rollox railway works, owned by the Caledonian Railway and Cowlairs railway works, owned by the North British Railway.

Mainline Steam New Zealand locomotive, North British J 1211. Photo by Joseph Christianson

1 Steam locomotives
2 Diesel locomotives
3 Electric locomotives
4 Decline
5 Preservation
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Steam locomotives

NBL built steam locomotives for countries as far afield as Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand. The Colony of New South Wales purchased numerous North British locomotives, as did the State of Victoria as late as 1951 (Oberg, Locomotives of Australia). In 1939 NB supplied 40 J class to the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR); some of which were later converted to J^B class oilburners and some to J^A class. In 1951 NB supplied another 16 J^A class , though these did not have the American-style streamlining of the J class. Together with the NB predecessor firms, North British supplied about a quarter of the steam locomotives used by the NZR. In 1949 South Africa purchased over 100 engines from the company in the 2-8-4 layout and these became the Class 24; some operated tourist trains on the George-Knysna line until 2000. Additionally South Africa also purchased some of its Class 25, 4-8-4 engines from the company between 1953-55. These successful engines with various in-service modifications survived until the end of steam in South Africa in 1992. NB also introduced the Modified Fairlie locomotive in 1924.

Locomotives made for Britain included the LMS Stanier Class 8F, the LMS Jubilee Class, and the LSWR N15 class, the Scotch Arthurs.

[edit] Diesel locomotives

North British Class 22, D6343, with Hymek D7072 at Old Oak Common, 1965.

Whilst highly successful as designers and builders of steam locomotives for both its domestic market and abroad, North British failed to make the jump to diesel locomotive production. In the 1950s it signed a deal with the German company MAN to construct diesel engines under licence. These power units appeared in the late 1950s' British Railways (BR) designs later designated Class 21, Class 22, Class 41, Class 43 (Warship) and Class 251 (Blue Pullman) None of these were particularly successful: constructional shortcomings with the MAN engines made them far less reliable than German-built examples. A typical example of this was the grade of steel used for exhaust manifolds in the Class 43s - frequent manifold failures led to loss of turbocharger drive gas pressure and hence loss of power. More importantly, the driving cabs of the locomotives would fill with poisonous exhaust fumes. BR returned many North British diesel locomotives to their builder for repair under warranty and they also insisted on a three-month guarantee on all repairs (a requirement not levied on its own workshops).

[edit] Electric locomotives

Preserved North British AL4 / Class 84 84001, ex-E3036, on display at Crewe Works in 2005.

North British was involved in the construction of early 25 kV AC electric locomotives for the West Coast Main Line (WCML) electrification project of the early 1960s. The General Electric Company won a contract for ten locomotives and sub-contracted the mechanical design and construction to North British: Class AL4 E3036-E3045 (later Class 84 84001-84010) entered traffic in 1960-61. As with its diesel locomotives, the class suffered poor reliability and spent long periods out of service. A partial reprieve came when money was made available to extend the electrification of the WCML north to Glasgow but no immediate funds were available for more electric locomotives. The Class 84s were refurbished in 1972 and pressed back into service, being finally withdrawn between 1978 to 1980 following delivery of Class 87 locomotives.

[edit] Decline

Perhaps unwisely, North British supplied many of its diesel and electric locomotives to BR at a loss, hoping to make up for this on massive future orders that never came. This and the continuing stream of warranty claims to cure design and workmanship faults proved fatal - North British declared bankruptcy on April 19, 1962. Because of the unreliability of its UK diesel and electric locomotives, all were withdrawn after comparatively short lifespans.

[edit] Preservation

The only surviving North British main-line diesel or electric locomotive is Class 84 84001.

Three steam locomotives of NZR 4-8-2 classes J, J^A, and J^B are preserved by Mainline Steam, New Zealand. Steam Incorporated in Paekakariki, New Zealand also have a J, whilst the Glenbrook Vintage Railway outside Auckland has an A^B class Pacific built by North British. Several industrial shunters have been preserved, including number 27654 by the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway. A number of steam locomotives still exist in Australia, including, some operational Victorian Railways R class 4-6-4 engines, several Dübs engines and Pmr Class 4-6-2 locomotives of Western Australia, a Rx Class engine in South Australia.